England’s Football Association has
announced that Sven Goran Eriksson will leave the job of national coach
immediately after the World Cup in Germany.

It was
apparently a “mutual decision,” after a long day of talks that was
presumably spent arguing pay-outs, rather than any discussion of
Eriksson remaining in
the post after “Sheikhgate,” on top of his previous gaffes and blunders.

So,
the News Of The World (sister paper
to The Sun) got its man, but you have
to wonder what sort of victory it is. Putting aside for a moment, yet again,
the fact that the entire exercise of setting Eriksson up with a fake
sheikh/potential employer in Dubai was pure entrapment, England now lurches towards Germany with a potentially divided and
demoralised team, led by a coach wondering what he’ll be doing in the second
half of the year.

Key
players like Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and David Beckham will be dubious
about the coach who betrayed locker room secrets to a bunch of strangers over
(expensive) wine. Eriksson and the team’s management will presumably keep their
distance.

But
what about the man himself? How motivated will he be? Sven put out a statement
today saying:

It is important to
stress to everyone just how committed I am to achieving success this summer.

I care passionately about this job and I want everyone to know
that.

This summer is the culmination of everything we have been working
towards over the last five years. Let’s go and win the World Cup.

Fine
words, but you could forgive anybody associated with the English team for
raising an eyebrow. Given Eriksson’s previous record, can anybody guarantee he
won’t be handing out his CV or attending potential job interviews between
matches in Germany when the football heavyweights
gather?

If England was going to draw a line and
say they no longer trust the Swede or his blundering ways, maybe they should
have cut bait now. Let’s hope for everybody’s sake that England doesn’t fall out of the
tournament early. Then it could get really
ugly – for Eriksson, the players, the FA and the News Of The World. No wonder the fake sheikh had his face blurred
in all the photos.